the sky with root-eyed

For the sky with rooted-eyes, Biabiany creates a new constellation — the frog — traced from the night sky of Guadeloupe at the time of the exhibition. Each star of the constellation is embodied in a ceramic sculpture, and together they outline the image of this nocturnal amphibian, whose song signals the shift from day to night. The sculptures are reflected in water-filled calabashes placed on the ground. This creates a dynamic interplay, a mirroring between water, earth, and sky, between the cosmic and the everyday.

Inspired by the Blue Crab constellation—one of the few traditional constellations of the Kalina people that has endured through the ages to reach us, and whose rise above the horizon signals the solar cycle —Biabiany reimagines celestial cycles from her own perspective. Her interpretation provides us with new ways to position and orient human bodies in space.

The works of the installation are interconnected by ropes braided from banana fibers, interspersed with organic sculptures of charred wood, each representing distinctive elements of Guadeloupe’s natural environment. Braiding, which is central to Biabiany’s practice, becomes both a storytelling tool and a quest for fresh metaphors to express her relationship to the land, and an act of resistance against the erasure of language. Rooted in orality and deliberate slowness, it serves as a thread for reconsidering how we structure narrative and language.

The banana flower—a recurring motif in the installation—embodies the duality of Guadeloupe’s history. It simultaneously symbolizes the harmful health effects of chlordecone¹ poisoning and the medicinal properties of the plant itself. Through this contrast, Biabiany explores the land’s ability to reclaim its own memory and heal the wounds of colonialism, creating a space where memory, poetry, and politics converge.